The Invincible Barrier
The elite orc unit roared as they charged toward the Wintervalt barrier.
Leading the pack, Chieftain Krok leaped forward and brought his axe down with all his might. It was the devastating blow that had once cleaved countless human knights' shields in two.
Claaang!
A clear, ringing sound echoed around the Wintervalt barrier.
"...Kruk?"
Krok let out a dumb grunt at the numbing shock traveling up his arm. In his hand was the wyvern bone axe, crafted from the spine of one of the Northern Mountains' ruling beasts. It was his pride, the symbol of his power. No matter how thick the log gate, one swing would shatter it to pieces.
But not this time. The blue barrier blocking the orc unit stood unscratched.
"Kurruk...!?"
"The chieftain's axe... bounced off!?"
The elite orcs following behind widened their eyes in disbelief. Krok's face flushed red with humiliation.
"I-it just slipped! The axe handle was slippery from the snow!"
Krok shouted in excuse and raised his axe again. His subordinates hacked at the wall with their own axes, but the results were disastrous. Axe blades chipped, handles snapped, and smashed into the unlucky orcs' feet.
"Hit it harder! Kuruk! If we can't even break this wall, Tarkan will laugh at us!!"
"Ku-kuruk! Keep hitting!"
Even though they'd seen with their own eyes that it didn't work.
The low-intelligence orcs just mindlessly pounded away at the barrier, oblivious to the catastrophe their stupidity would bring.
"Fire!!"
Shoooow!
With the sound of arrows slicing through the sky, golden beams poured down from atop the barrier.
"Kweeeek!"
"H-hot! It hurts!!"
The arrows raining from the barrier pierced the elite orcs' thick hides and embedded in their flesh. Krok stared at his wounded subordinates in disbelief. Orc skin, toughened by a diet of monster meat, could deflect human arrows barehanded.
Yet these arrows tore through elite orc hides like paper.
"Yes! Hit 'em in the eyes! Bro! I already got two!"
"Ha. I've got three. Drinks are on me tonight."
Casual, flippant chatter endlessly spilled from atop the barrier. The kind of talk orcs would have while beating humans to death.
"But bro, wasn't Hans a lumberjack? How's he so good with a bow? He's already got over ten."
"...Envy's a loss, Rick. Sometimes monsters like that are just born into the world."
Two. Three. Ten. Far from fearing the orcs, the humans laughed and bantered like it was a competition, hunting them down with glee.
Krok's eyes rolled back in rage. Prey acting like this!
"Kuruk!!! Throw the axes!! Smash the humans!"
At Krok's command, the orcs clustered below the barrier hurled their axes in unison. But the adventurers easily ducked.
"Haha! You think we'd get hit by that crap!?"
Clang! Thunk!
In the old days, it would've turned the stone barrier and humans into mincemeat together, but the axes merely bounced harmlessly off the wall and fell below. The barrier gleamed even brighter under the sunlight.
The humans who'd ducked briefly raised their weapons and cheered.
"Kahaha!! See that, you pigs!"
"Yeah, we've got the Grand Duchess watching over us!!"
"Wintervalt's barrier is invincible!!"
The humans' morale soared to the heavens. In stark contrast, the orcs—taking mindless beatings—descended into utter chaos.
It wasn't just the golden arrows pouring from above.
Slash!
"Kr...ruk...?"
The head of Krok's deputy orc flew through the air beside him. As blood fountained out, Krok frantically scanned around.
"Kr-kruk! Who is it!"
Something invisible sliced through the orcs like wind. Damn, couldn't see it. Too fast? No, it was fast, but something was off. With the massive sun floating above the barrier casting deep shadows, there should've been a shadow—but there wasn't one.
The legendary assassin, Black Sleep. She freely reflected and refracted light, slipping into the orcs' blind spots to slit their throats.
"Chiiik! Here! Something's—guk!"
Slash!
Another orc clutched its throat and collapsed. Krok deflected incoming golden arrows with his axe, then thrust out his left hand on instinct.
Grab!
Krok's hand barely caught something.
"Gotcha! You rat!!"
In Krok's massive grip was a slender waist. The light refraction shattered, revealing a lithe human female in a black mask.
"Kurruk! Female meat! I'll devour you!"
Krok bared his yellow teeth in a grin, squeezing to crush her. He loved the screams of humans on the verge of bursting.
But she met Krok's eyes directly and sneered back.
"Oh, sorry. Rough guys aren't my type."
"...Kuruk?"
Slither.
Her body slipped from Krok's hand like a snake. Only a slimy, slime-like residue remained.
As Krok blinked, a shadow grazed his shoulder.
Slash!
"Kraaaagh!!"
Krok clutched his shoulder and wildly swung his axe around. Enraged to death, yet the humans above kept yapping noisily.
"Bro!! Sis almost got eaten just now!!"
"That damn pig bastard dares grab whose waist!?"
"Calm down! Bro! If you go down there, you'll get trampled!!"
"Let me go! Today I'll mince that pig bastard into—!"
Krok's situation was hopeless.
Th-this can't be...
His boasted elite unit had been halved in an instant. The unscratched barrier, arrows from the sun in the sky, the invisible assassin. Everything shattered Krok's common sense.
At this rate, forget flattening Tarkan's nose—they'd be annihilated here.
Krok's dim brain spun desperately. Even a mere beast grows in adversity.
"Kuruk! Gather the bodies of our kin!"
At his command, the orcs flinched but began obeying their chieftain. Orc corpses piled below the wall, forming a foothold. Golden arrows pierced them one by one, but more orcs climbed over their fallen brethren. The mountain of bodies didn't crumble—it only grew taller.
Rick stared at the rising corpse pile, face pale as a ghost.
"Uh... uhhh... They're really gonna climb up at this rate, aren't they?"
"Yeah... Those dumb pigs are walking into hell themselves."
"Huh? What do you mean, bro?"
"Look over there. His Grace the Grand Duke is here. Our turn's over."
Dozens of orcs blocked the arrows with their kin's bodies and finally scaled the wall.
Boom!!
Atop the barrier. Krok's massive body landed right in front of the Wintervalt soldiers.
"Krahahaha!!"
Krok swung his bone axe, easily sending shield-bearing knights flying, and claimed the barrier's summit. In ecstatic triumph, he raised his bone axe high and bellowed.
"Kuoohhh! I am Krok, the great warrior of the Red Fang Tribe! Who here is the strongest!!"
Kill the strongest leader, and the rest lose will and submit. That was how orc wars ended.
Krok was certain: smash the humans' leader, and this fearsome barrier would be theirs.
"Don't hide in the back! Crawl out! Kuruk! If you're a leader, face Krok head-on!!"
His roar thundered across the barrier top. Krok looked down smugly at the humans atop it.
But they weren't fleeing. They gazed at him with pity, like a pathetic fool.
"Did you call for me?"
At the cold voice, the knights and adventurers packed shoulder-to-shoulder parted like the sea.
Through them strode a man with jet-black hair.
With each step, the beastly adventurers and knights bowed in unison, like orc warriors kneeling before Great Chieftain Tarkan.
"The master of Wintervalt, Kailan. I have no business with the likes of you—fetch your great chieftain. Swear fealty, and I'll let you cower in some Northern Mountains corner."
A low, dry voice. Even with an orc chieftain before him, not a speck of fear in his eyes. He looked at Krok not as predator, but as an annoying gnat.
Tarkan's eyes. That arrogant gaze made Krok lose all reason.
"Tarkan is far weaker than me! Want to rule orcs? Then defeat me, not him!"
Krok raised his wyvern bone axe and roared.
But Kailan didn't even glance at him. He just looked down at the orc blood staining the barrier and muttered.
"You've really smeared shit all over the wall. The cleanup costs should be covered by those magic stones."